Scotland Matters Letters

Sir, You have to feel sorry for the likes of Ron Campbell, clutching at straws when he moans about correspondents like myself stating the blindingly obvious on a number of key economic issues which an independent Scotland would have to confront. For example, he suggests there would be no hard border with the rest of the UK and cites Ireland as a reason. However, he conveniently ignores the fact that if Scotland ever applied for membership of the EU there would indeed be a requirement of a hard border with Brexit UK as a condition for joining. He also claims Scotland can “use the pound” but fails to mention there would not be a “currency union” but a form of “Sterlingisation” without the BoE acting as a lender of last resort or have any control on interest rates and so on. With bank runs and bailouts still fresh in people’s minds, Scotland’s sizeable financial sector and businesses are unlikely to accept such a position – notwithstanding that an indy Scotland would not be able to join the EU without its own currency and central bank. So, Mr Campbell, it’s not “Project Fear” or “lying” but well-established facts and, as they say, “the truth hurts”. Ian Lakin, Milttimber.

Whatever your view of Boris Johnston, his government was not a nationalist one, and it was quite wrong of your comment (Scotsman, 5 July) to state this so emphatically. In the 2014 independence campaign, there was a point where “nationalist” was regarded as a dirty word, with opinion polls underlining this and even Ms Sturgeon herself saying that she would change her party name if she could. The term “British Nationalist” first came to my attention at that time, an obvious attempt to produce a derogatory term of equivalent value on the pro-UK side of the equation, and hint at a similar mindset to the “British Nationalist Party”, a group that Brit-ish public opinion has always turned its back on. Johnson’s party may have taken a political decision that you don’t like, but that doesn’t make them nationalists. They will say they are Unionists, the clue being in their name, but this is not the same thing. Indeed, it is the opposite. If we want the UK and Scottish Governments to get on, we do need them to recognise one another, and not to undertake decisions that are outwith their agreed jurisdictions. The government which consistently refuses to accept the legitimacy of the other is the Scottish one. If anything, the UK government lets them away with far too much and seems afraid to pull them up on their obvious excesses and constant sniping. Anas Sarwar is wrong. You cannot legislate a way for people to get on (Scotsman, 5 July). His Labour colleague Lord Foulkes had a better idea. Make sure that all devolved administrations account for their money properly, and give a Westminster committee overall scrutiny of that. Make every party produce a budget that must be passed as “competent” by an independent watchdog prior to elections, including those standing for Westminster. We will only get better government if it is more obvious who is doing what, and who is paying for it If the UK government had any sense at all, they would insist on this, and recognise the value of doing so. Victor Clements, Aberfeldy, Perth & Kinross.

How inconvenient of Boris Johnson (finally) to resign. He has served as a very useful bogeyman for Nicola Sturgeon and her party. Whoever succeeds him will still be a Tory, and therefore akin to the devil incarnate in her eyes, but that person surely cannot be as untruthful, devious and clumsy as Johnson. Ms Sturgeon has, of course, to say that she feels “a wide-spread sense of relief” at Johnson’s demise, but he denies her a valuable electoral tool. I heard a commentator refer to Johnson as a “campaigner, not a governor”, and the phrase “peas in a pod” came to mind. Ms Sturgeon and her party are not fit for government. They are a campaigning force, with one aim. Take a look at the state of the devolved services that they are supposed to be running, and I defy you not to say of the SNP, in Ms Sturgeon’s tweeted words about the Tories: `The whole rotten lot need to go.” Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon tells us on the day of his resignation that Boris Johnson was “manifestly unfit” to become prime minister. What she fails to acknowledge is she and the PM are not that dissimilar. Johnson has been brought down for supporting a sex pest. He knew Chris Pincher had allegations against him when he made him chief whip but denied that knowledge. Sturgeon has admitted that she knew of “concerns” about Patrick Grady’s behaviour. It is believed she knew of them six years ago. And yet she stood by while he was put in a position of power over young, impressionable staff at Westminster. As Johnson turned a blind eye, so did Sturgeon and Ian Blackford in the name of the cause. When are you announcing your resignation, first minister? Jane Lax, Craigellachie, Aberlour.

Share this entry